Free update arrives November 4
As I played though this month’s entries for the Dtoid Designs Super Mario Maker contest, I came across several levels that provided a great argument for this game introducing a checkpoint system. Seems Nintendo thought so too as a mid-level checkpoints will be provided in a free update on November 4.
What’s that? You don’t want to add checkpoints to your ridiculously long and difficult level filled with pinpoint jumps and instant death traps? Well, perhaps you’d be more interested in the new flag system. Starting next month you can shake an arrow sign to create a flag which will act as a restart point in case you die rather than having you always restart at the very beginning of the level.
Power-ups will also be getting an upgrade and will now act more like they do in a traditional Super Mario game. Instead of just putting, for instance, a feather in an item box, you can now link two power-ups that will reward the player with a different item depending if Mario is short or tall. The example Nintendo gave in its press release said attaching a mushroom to a fire flower before putting it in a block will give a mushroom to a short Mario and a fire flower to a tall Mario.
If you’re more into playing levels than making them, Course World is getting updated with two new sections. The first new addition will be Event Courses. This will feature levels made by partner creators outside of Nintendo, with the first course being “Ship Love” from the Facebook Super Mario Maker hackathon. Event Courses will be updated regularly and, more importantly, may introduce new Mystery Mushroom transformations.
The second new section in Course World will be an Official Makers section, which will features levels made by employees of Nintendo and others specifically selected for it. These levels will join the 3.3 million already created by Super Mario Maker players.
